The son of Jesse & Jane Wilson, in 1860 he was a farmer living in Leicester, Buncombe County, North Carolina.

A Civil War veteran, he enlisted and mustered into state service at Asheville, North Carolina, May 7, 1861, as a private with Co. F, 6th North Carolina State Troops, a unit mustered into Confederate service that November as Co. F, 16th North Carolina Infantry. He served until the battle of Gettysburg, specifically Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863, but his service records offer a variety of possible outcomes: that he was wounded during Pickett's Charge, that he fell wounded at the battle of Falling Waters eleven days after Gettysburg, and that he deserted on July 2. At some point, he was left behind because he had been wounded and unable to continue, which is consistent across all versions. Falling into Union hands, he was treated in a Federal hospital at Gettysburg and apparently never returned to duty with the Confederate army.

While recuperating, he met Anna Mary Plank and decided to return to Adams County after the war to marry her, which occurred in 1866. Together they had Emma Louise (b. 09/22/66 - married Harry Eppleman), Margaret Elizabeth (b. 03/31/69 - married Jesse Howard Fissell), Ella Smyser (b. 08/17/70 - married an Eyler), Charles Joseph (b. 12/28/73), Mary Alverta (b. 03/06/77 - married Peter L. Riegle), Grace A. (b. 06/26/79 - married John Koerper), Zoe B. (b. @1886 - may have married Emory Slaybaugh), Robert A. (b. 11/18/88), and Beulah Letitia (b. 09/22/91 - married John Colestock).

He learned the printing trade at the Adams Star and Sentinel, ironically a staunch Union newspaper during the war. Ultimately, he returned to the agricultural life and lived much of it in Straban Township, although he died at age 74-9-4 in his daughter Beulah's Gettysburg home from "chronic mitral endocarditis (regurgitation) - sudden failure" with "chronic T.B. spondylitis, C. paraplegia" contributing factors.